CPS reform legislation is steaming rapidly through Congress at a “damn the torpedoes” pace. H.R.5456 was introduced on Monday June 13th. It was reviewed and passed out of Ways and Means on Wednesday the 15th. The Congressional Budget Office report was ordered the same day. The Senate introduced the companion bill S.3065 on Thursday the […]

For the better part of the last decade, Texas has had the honor of having the most complete and comprehensive Child Protection Handbook nationwide. A handbook that family advocates from all 50 states used as a learning tool. That all changes February 15, 2015, when the Department of Family and Protective Services strips out close to 450 pages of functionality.

In 2010, Angel Eyes over Texas was founded to “Watch (CPS) while others can’t.“. They tracked all handbook changes on their blog www.aeovrt.org providing caseworkers, attorneys, advocates and other stakeholders quick easy access to the monthly changes starting in 2011. Their post reflecting the most recent changes is located here.

An effective handbook must contain both policy and procedures. It appears that a huge chuck of procedures were stripped away with this revision greatly reducing its effectiveness as a field manual. Case work is primarily field work…

What lies. I normally would say what these people say is “inaccurate”, but all of their “concerns” and “ideas” were just lies. The workers are still asking questions they learned (allegedly) in their initial training. And, they are asking the questions to administrators who are not directly involved with the day-to-day operations of deciding whether or not to remove a child. Here is a fact for those who care, these people decided whether or not to remove children by having teleconference calls with a unit comprised of the “doctor”, the “case manager”, the “worker”, a few other morons, and they review reports, a ton of them — most of which are inaccurate to begin with (remember workers don’t even go to the homes sometimes or speak to witnesses) and make decision to remove children in that manner. The reports will even have the wrong description of a child, such as the wrong sex. THAT, is how this happens. Confirmed!

It is not a secret I am not a fan of Judge Michael G. Kaplan with the 17th Circuit Judicial Court in Broward County. Mr. Kevin Milcheck also had a bad experience with this infamous judge and has provided the above link to a petition to remove Kaplan from his seat. The petition was started by Ms. Lilah Shahid in Margate, Florida (yep, another unhappy customer).

Kaplan’s last day in service is currently scheduled to be January 5, 2015. But, the sooner the better.

Please consider signing this petition especially if you had the bad luck of having this judge preside over your hearing. If you do not sign the petition, remember to vote against this bad guy. Next election for his seat is November 4, 2014.

Sometimes, I get these little quirky “feelings” I must post something specific. Maybe this is for you. There is a ton of other information regarding this topic specifically, but it was one of my secret ingredients in my research for my own case. I just recommend you read about this topic as much as you can. Be reminded that Dependency Court is not civil court although some legal folks would suggest so. I am not an attorney, but I lived and experienced this myself. Dependency court is more like Criminal court and that is what A LOT of legal folks told me. Cost of legal fees alone can prove that. But anyway, the thing was that the whole time my judge carried out my 10-month long trial, the whole time they probably had less than 1% of “evidence” against me, and even then, the 1% would have been “less than” that percentage because the “evidence” against me consisted of “reports”, or “hearsay”, that was sadly based on other “reports” and “hearsay”. What a joke right? Well, not really.

You see, what gets you in court, especially if you’ve never been, is the intimidation. The prosecutors (yes, they are “State” prosecutors – straight out of law school if you are lucky, cuz they suck, and yes, there may be more than one you are up against) will dress up the entire case against you, “as if” they have all this stuff on you. But the TRUTH is, if you have not done anything wrong, then they have nothing! You can count on false or incorrect reports being presented, and you will need to endure weeks or months of the prosecution presenting all of these lies and mistakes before you can even correct or clarify them because when the state goes after you, they get to go first in court presentation. That is a very tough thing to do when they want you to lose your mind and cuss them out in court so you can be arrested so that they at least can get you on that. Mind games and more mind games. But again, that only works if you have never been to trial before, which explains how losers like Lindsey Lohan get away with stuff because they already know what they can and cannot say in court.

But anyway, back to this P of P…it is also a very sick level of evidence. You see, this pretty much suggests that if the judge is 50/50 sure you are a risk, the 1% will make him/her use their wild card, or “coward” card as I refer to it, and “air in the side of caution” and side in favor of the state. An alleged “criminal”, like a serial rapist, child-torturer, etc….well he/she gets to have a “jury”, or a set of eyes and ears that is not looking out for a mafia government agency, and gets to have them decide on a “beyond a reasonable doubt” level, or “without a doubt – 100% sure”. Plus they get double-jeopardy. Just lovely, isn’t it?

I hope that this topic at least helps some of those folks who are in similar situations as I was and clearly have a B.S. case against them so that you can maneuver through your trial and hopefully not have such a long one. The judge in my case said my case’s length was “unusual”. Based on cases I’ve followed, it appears that the average dependency trial averages 3 months max, possibly influenced by TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) limitation rules.

A requirement that more then 50% of the evidence points to something. This is the burden of proof in a civil trial.

For example: At the end of civil case A v. B, 51% of the evidence favors A. Thus, A has a preponderance of the evidence, A has met their burden of proof, and A will win the case.

Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary

The burden of proof required in a civil (non-criminal) action to convince the court that a given proposition is true. The plaintiff must convince the judge or jury by a preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff’s version is true — that is, over 50% of the believable evidence is in the plaintiff’s favor. Compare: reasonable doubt

This is a post from a comment received by Trina Clay, a student with Seattle Central Community College. Please consider completing the survey. We have some hope that future leaders of our community, such as college students interested in pursuing a career that might put them in direct contact with CPS activities, might drive positive change.

Below is Ms. Clay’s original request through my website. Please note I have not verified any information provided below, but was able to link Ms. Clay’s signature below with her professional credentials.

Thank you and my prayers for you always.
-LMo.

Comment by TRINA CLAY on May 24, 2013 2:25 pm

***This survey has been revised so that everyone has the ability to provide some feedback***
Across the country, children of color are present in the child welfare system at rates greater than their proportions in the population. This over-representation is referred to as “racial disproportionality.” In Washington State, a 2004 study of the child welfare system in King County found that American Indian (Indian) and Black children were overrepresented at all points in the system. This “racial disproportionality” is the reason many children of color are unnecessarily removed from their homes, and causing a struggle in the families reunification process. If you have been impacted by the child welfare system, please take a brief moment to complete this 10 question survey.

Your responses will be treated confidentially and will not be used for any purpose other than to conduct research on the Child Welfare System. Accordingly, any information you provide in respect will not be used in any way that is inconsistent with the purpose of this online survey. No information obtained from this survey will be disclosed to any outside parties. I intend to provide a report on my findings to my Quantitative Principles class at Seattle Central Community College. Please feel free to share the link to others who may have been impacted as well.

Just like the Fort Lauderdale Police Department did to my family, we were pushed, threatened with arrest by armed uniformed men who forced themselves into my home, pushing my elderly father on the floor…child kidnapped. No papers of any kind were presented, as confirmed at the first dependency hearing I attended. No one argued that paperwork was never presented to me, including no warrant and no probably cause documents. But the police officers there that day did what they did anyway and handed an innocent child to dangerous CPS workers who then later handed the child to a sexual abuser. Police…puppets to the system, or accomplices?